One of the key invites at the reception of the inaugural day reception hosted by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau together with the High commission of Sri Lanka in Germany was delegation from the Gerrman Parliament led by the German Ambassordor for Sri Lanka Dr Jurgeon who commented that the renewed relationship between Sri Lanka and Germany is very positive and this will have a strong positive impact the tourism business. The minister for tourism and sports voiced that in 3 years when IBT is celebrating the 50th year Sri Lanka will come in as a sponsor and strategic partner for the event given that Sri Lanka has taken part in almost almost of the fairs in the past years. This was the 1st attendance of a top hierarchy at ITB the world largest travel and tourism fair after an absence of 10 years.

The minister for Tourism and Sports Navin Dissanayake further stated that the people of Germany and the people of Sri Lanka enjoy a rich history of working closely many years and in the bear future Sri Lanka must be the strategic destination partner for ITB. The chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion bureau chairman Rohantha Athukorala said the one island thousand treasures new positioning of Sri Lanka tourism which Sri Lanka richly can show case to the world is having a very positive impact given the new relationship with the people of Germany and the strong vibes we see based on the feedback on day 2 of ITB augurs well for Sri Lanka. We must cross the 125,000 visitor barrier said Athukorala given that last year we crossed the 100,000 mark. We must become a top of the mind destination for the global traveler who wants diversity, Authencity and compactness in a destination that they choose with focussed marketing in the German market said Athukorala. Based on the response of the travel agents and business partners who visited the Sri Lankan Pavillion at ITB 2015 we can achieve this end voiced Mahen Kariyawasam the President of the Sri Lanka inbound tour operators(SLITO).